July 8, 2014

Now that our kid’s summer break is almost half over it means we must start planning for their return to school. Did you know there are over 660,000 children living in poverty in the areas where we live and work?  

Many children return to school without the basic necessities to get them through their day. To help them succeed we are holding our first ever IBEW 21 Days of Giving “Back to School Supply Drive.”

The school supply drive will take place from July 13 - August 2, 2014. We are asking every IBEW 21 member to donate a minimum of $1 and school supplies.

Print this bulletin board posting by clicking here.

After the drive we will need volunteers to pick-up the donations and bring them to our Union Hall. We will sort, repack and deliver them to the organizations we will be working with so they can be distributed to children in need. We learned with our food drive that giving is the easy part; the heavy lifting begins after the donations are made.

As many of you should already know some of our Sisters and Brothers across our jurisdiction recently lost their jobs because of corporate downsizing.  We also have members who have serious medical issues or are experiencing economic setbacks that make it difficult to provide for their families as they were able to in the past. We want to help these Sisters and Brothers with donations collected during the IBEW 21 Days of Giving Back to School Supply Drive.

Additionally, one of the organizations we will be partnering with is My Joyful Heart. It is a unique charity that provides personalized assistance and encouragement for children in need. They endeavor to be a positive influence and provide them with basic life essentials, school supplies, clothing, toys and encouragement throughout each year. It costs My Joyful Heart $420 per year to sponsor just one child they currently have 680 children enrolled in their assistance program.

Visit the My Joyful Heart website here.

If you would like to volunteer, know of members that are willing to help out or children’s organizations that would benefit from the drive please email Recording Secretary Bob Przybylinski bobp@ibew21.org, Treasurer Jacquie Fields jfields@ibew21.org or Business Representative Dave Webster dwebster@ibew21.org. If you or your coworkers would like to sponsor a child from My Joyful Heart contact Bob, Jacquie or Dave. 

We ask all of you to do what it takes so we can make an impact in the communities where we live and work.

Please share this message with your coworkers, and post this message and bulletin board posting in your work location.

Solidarity!